Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-07-05
BooDLERs AND THEIR METHODS.

methods employed by corruptionists ant
"ooodlers' everywhere. Perhaps this
natural enough, as their objects and end
) are the same, yet it is interesting to not
, how closely their modes of operation re
semble each other in different cities. Th'
"boodler, as the term is now understood
Is largely the product of modern municipal
government. He is a combination of cor
ruptionist and political boss, dividing hi.
time between managing politics, in which
ne assumes sort of open and-above board
activity, and carrying out schemes to rot
the people. The boodler is generally 8
pretty smart sort of fellow, as it takes 9
smart man to be successful rascal. But
rascals are never quite as smait as they
think they are, and the professional
boodler is pretty sure to come to
grief, soon or late Familiarity with
crime breeds contempt for law and immu-
nifty from punishment makes the boodler
bold, until finally he does something so
audacious, fragrant and intolerable that the
law gets after him. Then he makes hard
fight. He generally has money, or can
command it, and considerable personal
following; for where there is one boodler
there is always nest of them. The theory
of the boodler and corruptionist is that 1.-The
fewer men you have in this politics the
better" but he must have enough to form
a body guard and carry out his DEGREES.
When the boodler is arrested his henchmen
try to make themselves useful In such ways
as they can, always, of course, in the d.
rection of beating the law and
defeating justice. Boodler lawyers
always adopt the same tactics
and line of defense, and in this again the
similarity of boodler methods appears. The
boodler lawyer is great stickler for JUS
tice. All he wants is "a fair trial for my
client, but, all the same, his efforts are
directed against fair trial. He knows as
well as anybody that his client is q scoun-
drel, and that he is paid to get the boodler
out of the clutches of the law, and this he
endeavors to do by any and every means
possible. The resources of the law are
very great in this direction. 1t is splen-
did hiding place for criminals who know
its intricate passages and winding ways,
and it takes very good and very correct
prosecutor to follow and unearth
them. If the prosecutor is in
secret sympathy with the defendant,
or if he be an assistant" who has been
privy to some of the defendants crimes,
and, perhaps, has profted by them, then
justice is In hard luck. Not much can be
expected from that kind of prosecution
One favorite Doodle method in defense Is
trying to get an ignorant jury, under the
pretense of getting an impartial one. The
boodler lawyer assumes that all honest
men acquainted with current events-that
is, who read the newspapers-regard his
client as scoundrel, and, consequently,
he tries to get jury of men who have not
read the newspapers, thinking that such
will be comparatively ignorant and easily
swayed. OF course, he may err in this,
but that is his theory. He calls this ignor-
ance impartiality, as if an
intelligent man who had read
the papers, and even formed an
opinion, could not judge fairly as to the
weight of evidence for or against his client
So he consumes great deal of time in try
ing to get jury sufficiently ignorant for
his purposes. So it was in the Sharp case,
in New York, though in the end it did the |
defendant no good, and so 1t is in the |
cases now pending in Chicago. Attorneys
for the boodlers have been fighting every
inch of the ground just as Jake Sharp's |
lawyers did. But it is gratifying to OBJ
serve that the court in Chicago has very
little patience with it. The following ex-
tract is sample of the proceedings. One
man summoned as juror had admitted |
reading the papers, and counsel for the de-
tense had challenged him:
1.-THE Court-You do not mean to say
that you would place more reliance on a
newspaper report than on the sworn evil |
dence offered in this case?
"Witness-No, don't think 1 would.
"The Notwithstanding the opin-
ion you have formed and those you have
heard expressed, could you try the case on
the evidence offered in this case, and on
that alone?.
'Witness-Well, don't know.
''The Court-Well, you ought to know.
You are the man am asking.
"Witness-Well think could.
"The Court-Dont you want to get off |
his jury?
"Witness-Well, would like to get
IF.
1.-The Court-That is what thought.
Now. is it your desire to get off this jury
hat makes you answer as you have dones /
"Witness-No, sit.
Colonel Munn-If your honor please,
ne desire to enter an exception to your
honor examining the juror.
The Court-Very well, gentlemen, you
nay enter all the exceptions you desire as
We proceed. We want to get jury here
t We can get them.
"Col. Munn-So do We We do not
want to be here any longer than we can
lelp during the hot summer weather, but
hove all we want to have a fair ana inn